RESIDENTS in the city centre and surrounding areas have a new inspector policing their streets.

Insp Ian Thorp has been a police officer for more than 24 years and has a vast experience when it comes to policing Chester.

Insp Thorp has taken over the role of Chester Inner Neighbourhood Policing Inspector from Insp Mel Williams who has moved on to a new role working with Cheshire West and Chester Council to further improve the good working relationships between the force and the council.

Insp Thorp said: “It is great to be back in Chester, I started my career here patrolling the city centre as a probationer so coming back as the Neighbourhood Policing Inspector is appropriate.”

Insp Thorp has been an inspector for nine years and spent time in the force’s incident control room, deploying officers to emergency calls, before becoming Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for the Chester Outer area which covers Blacon, Hoole, Handbridge and the surrounding areas.

He headed up the Chester Outer team for two years before spending six months on a force-wide project to improve policing in the county.

He said: “I’m really happy to be back on the area and am looking forward to taking on the unique challenges that city centre policing brings.

“As a team we aim to focus on the areas people living and working the city centre have told us they are most concerned about.

“We are working with the business community to tackle issues such as theft and shoplifting. Policing the city’s night-time economy is also one of our priorities, reducing violence and alcohol-related crime.

“Chester is a safe place to live, work and visit, but like all cities does have its own challenges. My team is well prepared to tackle these issues with help from the public, businesses and partners such as the council.”

To contact your local Neighbourhood Policing Team call 0845 458 6384 and leave a message for a member of your team or email chester.inner.npt@cheshire.pnn.police.uk.